is necessary for a comprehension of his character. They show
the influences which tended to form in him his most notable
characteristics: loyalty to his sovereign, a passion for regularity and
legal methods in the management of affairs, and a zeal for the Church
of England. The promotion of the young soldier followed quickly, as he
continued to display the fidelity and capacity of which his boyhood had
given promise. His uncle’s position in the household of the Queen of
Bohemia determined the direction of his promotion, and the nephew was
made gentleman-in-ordinary in the same household in 1660, a position
more honorable than remunerative, which was soon terminated by her
death in 1662. His military training was developed by the war with
the Dutch, in which he won further distinction and made his first
acquaintance with America and American affairs.[106] The position he
had held in the court of the exiled queen won him a wife in 1671, in
the person of a young kinswoman of the Earl of Craven, who had been
the devoted servant, if not the husband, of Elizabeth.[107] This Lord
Craven was the one officer of the army who remained faithful to James
II. to the last, and, though eighty years old, put himself at the head
of his regiment of body-guards to defend the king from insult, when
William of Orange was already in London.
The court positions held by Andros in the reign of Charles II. are
not those of a brilliant young cavalier, or a roystering blade of the
Restoration who only cared for place and plunder, wine and women; they
indicate rather that passionate devotion to the house of Stuart, which
the most worthless of that line were always able to inspire, devotion
generally recompensed by gross ingratitude. His marriage was evidently,
from the prominence Andros himself gives to it, a high connection for
a simple country gentleman to make, but it did not have the effect of
detaching him from a soldier’s life; for in the same year he appears
still as major of the regiment that had been in Barbadoes, and even
at that time he had obtained the reputation of being well versed in
American affairs.[108]
When this regiment was disbanded, Major Andros received a new
commission in a dragoon regiment that was raised at that time for
Prince Rupert, in which his four companies were incorporated, the first
English regiment ever armed with a bayonet.[109] This was the period
when the proprietors of Carolina were drawing up their remarkable
feudal constitution and dividing up lands and titles among themselves.
Lord Craven, who was one of the proprietors, seeing the interest that
Andros took in American affairs, procured him a patent conferring upon
him the title and dignity of a margrave, together with four baronies
containing some forty-eight thousand acres, to support the title. This
gift, however, was only valuable as a token of his friend’s esteem.
At his father’s death in 1674, he succeeded him in his seigniory of
Sausmarez and in the office of bailiff of Guernsey.[110] He was not,
however, fated to dwell in quiet and cultivate his father’s acres; for
at the end of the second Dutch war, when his regiment was mustered out
of service, he was selected, probably on account of his familiarity
with colonial affairs, to receive the surrender of New York and its
dependencies, in accordance with the treaty of peace. The territory
thus recovered had been granted by Charles II., at the time of its
first seizure in 1664, to his brother, the Duke of York; and Andros,
who must have been personally known to them both, was now appointed
lieutenant-governor of the palatine province. His commission bears
date of July 1, 1674.[111] He was well fitted for the position. His
residence in Holland had made him familiar with the people with whom he
was chiefly to deal, and his acquaintance with American affairs stood
him in good stead in matters of general policy, as his administration
soon disclosed; while his connection with the court and with the royal
family enabled him to act as a confidential agent of the Duke. He
arrived in New York in November accompanied by his wife, and after some
formalities entered upon his government. His treatment of the conquered
Dutch was marked with great tact and judgment, and rarely has the
transfer of a colony of one nation to the rule of another been effected
with so little friction or disturbance.[112]
In regard to the serious problem of the treatment of the Indians he
was far-sighted enough to continue the wise and judicious policy of
his predecessors in regard to the powerful and dangerous confederation
of the Iroquois or Five Nations. The importance of this can hardly
be over-estimated in its bearing upon the subsequent history of the
country. It is true that this policy was not original with him; he took
it as a legacy from the Dutch in 1674, as Nicolls had done ten years
before; but it may be said that the honest and judicious administration
of Indian affairs did much to save the English colonies from being
wiped out of existence by a general Indian war.[113] If the Iroquois
had been roused to go on the war-path, as were the unfortunate Indians
of New England, it is hard to see what could have saved the scattered
settlements. And again, if Andros, by a tortuous and deceitful policy
like that of the United Colonies towards the New England Indians, had
thrown the Iroquois into the arms of the French, who were only too
anxious for reconciliation with them, there is little probability that
the valor of Wolfe would ever have had a chance for success on the
Plains of Abraham.
As a provincial governor Andros made many enemies; but they were
mainly in the colonies lying adjacent to his own. The patent of New
York was very extensive, and covered territory which the neighboring
colonies claimed had been already ceded to them.[114] Connecticut had
vague claims all the way to the South Sea, and had been devoting its
energies during the short space of its history to edging along its
frontier further and further to the westward, in spite of the indignant
protests of the Dutch. Settlements had been formed on Long Island,
which was undoubtedly beyond its limits. Now, the dispute was between
rival colonies of the same country; and considering the uncertainty
of the title of Connecticut, Andros must be allowed to have acted
with propriety and moderation. He succeeded in making good the title
of the Duke to Long Island and Fisher’s Island, where the Connecticut
authorities were attempting to exercise jurisdiction; but the boundary
line upon the mainland remained an unsettled question even down to our
own times. At Saybrook, Andros did his duty in asserting formally his
principal’s claim, but was wise enough not to press a question which
would have caused great difficulties between the Colonies.[115]
With the New Jersey settlers he had still more difficulty, as they had
various grants and patents from the Duke himself to plead for their
justification; but he pursued a straightforward course, standing up, as
he was bound to do, for the rights of his principal, unless they could
be legally shown to have been granted away. His passion for regular and
orderly business methods soon manifested itself, and his letters reveal
the indignation of a man of affairs at the utterly unbusiness-like ways
of the people with whom he had to do.[116]
Besides his commission as Governor of New York, he had undoubtedly
private instructions as to how he should comport himself towards his
uneasy neighbors, the New England colonies. He was anxious to keep
on good terms with Connecticut, as New York was largely dependent
upon that colony for provisions; and his letters to the Connecticut
authorities are mostly of a friendly character, though written in a
tone of superiority which undoubtedly gave serious offence. On hearing
that the people of Hartford were harboring one of the regicides,
he addressed a very sharp letter to the colonial authorities, to
which they replied in a tone of injured innocence, which is quite
edifying, asking him for the names of those who had so maligned their
loyalty.[117]
It was impossible for the Connecticut Republicans to realize the
profound horror which the execution of Charles had caused, and the
depth of the feeling of hatred and repugnance which the perpetrators of
that audacious act had inspired. Even after William and Mary were on
the throne, and James II. was an exile, it was found that a regicide,
of the character and position of Ludlow, dared not show himself in
England; and during the Restoration period the feeling was intense. The
act was regarded by the majority of Englishmen as sacrilege, as well
as murder, for it had destroyed not only what was called the sacred
majesty of the king, but the sacred majesty of the legal government.
To Andros the news that Goffe and Whalley were escaping justice by the
connivance of the authorities was horrible, and must have suggested
doubts, if he had not found them already, of the policy of allowing men
who would have been excluded from all office in England to rule the
king’s colonies in America.
A more serious difficulty arose with Massachusetts, whose authorities
had ventured to send commissioners to the Mohawks to treat directly
with them as an independent nation--an act at utter variance with the
policy of the Dutch and English, who regarded them as under their
authority, and which, therefore, was liable to plunge the colony in
war.[118] The ostentatious assumption of independence by the colony
of Massachusetts, its claim to be free from the laws of England, and
the spirit displayed by many of its leaders, which must have seemed
seditious to the legal mind of Andros, made it necessary for him
to watch very carefully any affairs in which they were concerned.
His attitude brought upon him the hostility of the colony, and its
authorities asserted, and constantly reiterated, the charge that it
was at Albany, by his connivance, that Philip’s Indians had procured
supplies of arms.[119]
This charge, naturally, was most offensive to the loyal spirit of
Andros, who had fretted a good deal under his forced inactivity in the
war; and he repeatedly denied it, challenging his accusers for proof of
their assertions, proof which they were absolutely unable to supply.
They continued, however, to insinuate this malicious statement, and it
was long believed by the people of Massachusetts, and led undoubtedly
to much of the hostility between them and Andros during his subsequent
rule in New England.[120] In spite of their aspersions, he continued
steadily in his prudent policy, keeping the Mohawks quiet on one side,
and, by vigorous measures against the Indians in Maine, protecting
his personal enemies from inroads upon the other.[121] His government
of New York was successful; the country remained in peace; its quiet
contrasted strongly with the troubles in New England, and the revenues
of the colony were honestly collected and wisely administered. To
those who hold the commonly received opinion of Andros, it will seem
strange to find that he urged upon the Duke of York the desirability
of allowing the colonists the privileges of a representative
assembly.[122] In November 1677, he returned to England on a leave of
absence, remaining there until May of the following year.
While in England he received the honor of knighthood, a sign that
his labors were appreciated, and gave, in the form of answers to the
inquiries of the Committee for Trade and Plantations, statements in
regard to American affairs which are of great value as exhibiting the
condition of the colonies, and especially of New York, at that time.
His replies about New England are such as we might expect from a man of
his character and position, and disclose no hostility.
He says: “The acts of trade and navigacon are sayed, & is generally
beleeved, not to be observed in ye Collonyes as they ought”--a
statement which is certainly moderate if not grammatical; and also: “I
doe not find but the generality of the Magistrates and people are well
affected to ye king and kingdome, but most, knowing noe governmt then
their owne, think it best, and are wedded and oppiniate for it. And ye
magistrates & others in place, chosen by the people, think that they
are oblidged to assert & maintain sd Government all they cann, and are
Church members, and like so to be, chosen, and to continue without any
considerable alteracon and change there, and depend upon the people
to justifie them in their actings.” For a description of a puritan
republic by a royalist and churchman, this is remarkably fair and
correct.[123]
The last two years of his government in New York were vexed with
difficulties with some of the English merchants of the province, who
were probably pinched by Andros’s strict and methodical, and possibly
also narrow and literal, administration of the revenue laws. He was
openly accused by them, and by other discontented parties, to the
Duke of York as dishonest in his management of the revenue, and was
summoned home to answer to the charges. A special commissioner, who
was absurdly incompetent for the position, was sent to investigate the
accounts, and he took the side of the merchants in his report.[124]
Andros, however, was able to answer satisfactorily every charge against
him, and boldly demanded a thorough examination of all his acts as
governor. He was examined before Churchill and Jeffreys, neither of
whom would have been likely at that time to have let any one go free
who had defrauded the Duke, and they reported that Andros “had not
misbehaved himself, or broken the trust reposed in him by his royal
highness in the administration of his government, nor doth it appear
that he hath anyway defrauded or mismanaged his revenue.”[125]
Though completely exonerated, he was not at this time reinstated in
the governorship, and the next five years of his life were passed
in England at court, where he obtained an honorable position in the
household, and in his estates in Guernsey, to which in 1684 the
island of Alderney was added by royal grant at a rent of thirteen
shillings.[126] In 1685 he received a military command once more, and
served in the campaign in the west of England against Monmouth; and
the silence of the enemies in regard to any acts of cruelty at this
time is a high tribute, for, if they had known of any, they would
undoubtedly have held him up for abhorrence as a persecutor.[127] Later
in the year he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Princess Anne of
Denmark’s regiment of horse, under the command of the Earl of Scarsdale.
The accession of James, under whom he had acted previously, made it
likely that Andros would again receive employment. In spite of the
fact that he was a devoted adherent of the Church of England, the
king, who was attempting to restore the Roman worship, gave him his
full confidence, and entrusted him with the work of carrying out a
project which had been for some time before the minds of the colonial
authorities in England--the consolidation of New England into a single
province. This was no new idea of James II., but had been discussed for
several years; and it was a plan that had much to recommend it.
As early as 1678, the Lords of Trade and Plantations had been brought
to see the need of a general governor and a fit judicature in the
colonies, for the determining of differences; and in 1681 Culpepper
had urged the project. A preliminary measure had been adopted of
appointing a general revenue officer for all the American colonies,
with the power of selecting his own subordinates.[128] The notorious
Randolph, a man of strict honesty and probity of life, but unable
to see more than his own side of any question, was appointed deputy
surveyor-general over the New England colonies, and devoted his
energies to obtaining the forfeiture of the patent of Massachusetts.
The astuteness and bribery of the Massachusetts agents were able to
defer the evil day until the autumn of 1684, when the charter was
vacated.[129] This left Massachusetts in the hands of the crown; the
next problem was to obtain the vacating of the more regular charters of
Connecticut and Rhode Island. Writs of _quo warranto_ were issued, and
sent to the colonies respectively; and the submission of Rhode Island,
after some decent protests, was obtained.[130]
Andros was chosen by the king for the important post of
governor-general, not, as Palfrey insinuates, because he was peculiarly
disagreeable to Massachusetts, and so likely to carry out the objects
of the king; but because the king knew him personally, and knew him
to be a man of capacity and integrity. It is absurd to suppose that
James, who was an experienced man of business himself, and more
familiar with colonial affairs than any king of England before or
since, would have intentionally selected a man for the purpose who
would endanger the success of the undertaking. Colonel Kirke, who
had been actually designated as governor, had been withdrawn as
disagreeable to New England. It is unnecessary here to enter into any
arguments to show the advantage that would have accrued to the colonies
if this judicious plan had been successful. New England might have been
spared much wasteful legislation and ruinous financial experiments,
and would have been joined together in one strong province, instead
of being composed of several weak and jealous colonies; the union,
the benefits of which it took the colonists so long to learn, would
have been facilitated; and a strong and united front would have been
presented to the French, who were beginning now to threaten the
existence of the English colonies. The Stuarts, it is true, were
pensioners and allies of the King of France in Europe, but in America
they were his natural and inevitable enemies; and James, who, unlike
his brother, felt deeply the shame of his vassalage to the French, was
anxious to prevent any extension of French power in America.
Andros arrived in Boston in December 1686, and was received in a
most loyal and even enthusiastic manner.[131] A large portion of the
Massachusetts people had grown weary of the rule of the oligarchy, and
Andros was welcomed as bringing with him the protection of English law.
His government had been constituted in detail in his commission, and
he at once proceeded to organize it and to levy the taxes necessary
for its support. Deprived of the representative assembly in which the
semblance of free government had been preserved, one of the towns
attempted to resist the tax. The leaders of the movement were tried
fairly and legally, and were fined and imprisoned for their attempt at
resistance.[132] After this no attempts were made to dispute the laws
of the new government, until the revolution which overthrew all legal
authority in the colony broke out in 1689.
It was very important for Andros that the submission of Connecticut
should be obtained without conflict, as Massachusetts, like New
York, was largely dependent upon the neighboring colony for food.
The Connecticut authorities fenced and parried, interposed delays,
and showed themselves, as they always did, clever men of business,
exhibiting qualities that doubtless raised Governor Treat and Secretary
Allyn in Governor Andros’s estimation. Finally, however, when further
resistance was dangerous, a letter was sent which could be construed
either as a surrender or as not a surrender, so that they might have
a safe retreat in any case; and on the strength of this letter Andros
assumed the government.[133] The period that follows is sometimes
described as the “usurpation,” but there is nothing in the history of
the times to give one the impression that the government of Andros
in Connecticut was not as regular and legal a government as the
colony ever had. If Andros had not been overthrown in Massachusetts
by a carefully-prepared rebellion, which left the colonies without a
governor, it is not likely that either Connecticut or Rhode Island
would have ventured to resume its charter. Andros came to Connecticut
in October 1687, travelling by way of Providence and New London, and
from New London across country through what are now Salem, Colchester,
and Glastonbury, to the Rocky Hill ferry. He was attended by a “company
of gentlemen and grenadiers to the number of sixty or upwards,” and was
met at the ferry by a troop of horse “which conducted him honorably
from the ferry through Waterfield (Wethersfield) up to Hartford.”[134]
Of the transactions at Hartford we have the dramatic story of local
tradition, the only proof of which was the existence of an oak tree
said to have been the receptacle of the charter. For this romantic
story there is absolutely no contemporary authority, and the details
are very improbable. The charter very possibly may have been concealed,
and very possibly in the Charter Oak, but the incidents of the familiar
story are, if known, not mentioned by any writers of the time.[135] The
records of the colony contain simply the formal but expressive entry:
“His Excellency, S^r Edmund Andross, Kn^t., Capt. General & Gov^r of
his Ma^{ties} Territorie and Dominion in New England, by order from his
Ma^{tie} James the second, King of England, Scotland, France & Ireland,
the 31 of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of this
colony of Conecticott, it being by his Ma^{tie} annexed to Massachusets
& other colonys under his Excelencies Goverment. FINIS.”[136]
Bulkeley, in the “_Will and Doom_,” relates that Andros was met at
Hartford by the trained bands of divers towns who united to pay him
their respects.
“Being arrived at Hartford,” he continues, “he is greeted and
caressed by the Gov^r and assistants, and some say, though I will
not confidently assert it, that the Gov^r and one of his assistants
did declare to him the vote of the Gen^l Court for their submission
to him. However, after some treaty between his Excellency and them
that evening, he was, the next morning, waited on and conducted
by the Gov^r, Deputy Gov^r, Assistants and Deputies, to the Court
Chamber, and by the Gov^r himself directed to the Gov^{r’s}
seat, and being there seated (the late Gov^r, Assistants and
Deputys being present & the Chamber thronged as full of people
as it was capable of), His Excellency declared that his Majesty
had, _according to their desire_, given him a commission to come
and take on him the government of Connecticut, and caused his
commission to be publicly read. That being done, his Excellency
showed that it was his Majesty’s pleasure to make the late Gov^r
and Captain John Allyn members of his council, and called upon them
to take their oaths, which they did forthwith, and all this in that
public and great assembly, _nemine contradicente_, and only one man
said that they first desired that they might continue as they were.”
“After this his Excellency proceeded to erect courts of Judicature,
and constituted the said John Allyn, Esq. & Judge of the inferiour
Court of Common Pleas for the county of Hartford, and all others
who before had been assistants, & dwelling in the same County, he
now made Justices of the Peace for the said County.
“From hence his Excellency passed through all the rest of the
countys of N. Haven, N. London and Fairfield, settling the
Government, was everywhere chearfully and gratefully received,
and erected the King’s Courts as aforesaid, wherein those who
were before in the office of Gov^r, Deputy Gov^r and Assistants
were made Judges of the Pleas, or Justices of the Peace, not
one excepted nor (finally) excepting, but accepting the same,
some few others being by his Excellency added to them in the
several Countys, not without, but by & with their own advice and
approbation, and all sworn by the oaths (of allegience and) of
their respective offices, to do equal justice to rich and poor,
after the Laws & Customs of the Realm of England, and of this his
Majesty’s dominion.”
“The Secretary, who was well acquainted with all the transactions
of the General Court, and very well understood their meaning and
intent in all, delivered their common seal to Sir E. A.”[137]
Connecticut under Andros passed a period of peace and quiet. Governor
Treat and secretary Allyn were made members of the council and judges,
besides being entrusted with military commands, and everything went
on quietly. There was an evident disposition to favor Connecticut,
and every reason why it should be favored. We hear of no complaint
against the government or the laws. The worst hardship recorded is
the settling of intestate property according to English law, instead
of the customs of the colony. It is true that town meetings were
forbidden except once a year, but there were frequent sessions of the
courts held, so that the citizens were not deprived of all the common
interests of their lives. With Allyn the governor was on most friendly
terms, modifying several regulations at his suggestions, and entrusting
him largely with the management of Connecticut affairs.[138] To make a
proper catalogue of miseries, the Connecticut historian, Trumbull, is
obliged to borrow and relate doleful stories from Massachusetts, not
asserting that they happened in Connecticut, but certainly producing
that impression.[139]